"The State of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political
rights of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion ... it will guarantee freedom
of religion and conscience." - May 1948)

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Dr. Susan Weiss, Esq., Executive Director of the Center for Women's Justice, writes a powerful article for 2019 International Agunah Day. In the spirit of the Book of Esther she challenges the common sense regarding agunot – Jewish women held, like Esther, in marital captivity.

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Former Israeli MFA Deputy Director General for North America, Baruch Bina, published an article in Hebrew titled ‘Israel is losing the Jewish people’. Hiddush shares some of its key assertions and observations in English here.

The MKs highlighted different aspects of the need to respond to the Pittsburgh massacre, not merely by identifying with the loss and pain of the Jewish community, not only by decrying growing anti-Semitic outbursts, but by changing Israel’s policies.

Anti-Semites don’t distinguish between Jews according to their denominations. That is a practice reserved for the Israeli government. Israeli media personalities and others have drawn conclusions from the massacre in Pittsburgh, which links this tragedy to Israel's religion-state policies.

The Israeli government’s decision to back out of its pledge to expand a non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall, and ongoing discrimination against the Reform and Conservative movements, have brought to a head a crisis that has been brewing for decades. If not resolved, this crisis will destroy the relationship between the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

On August 31st, the Israeli Supreme Court took up a matter brought by Hiddush, Women of the Wall and the Reform and Conservative Movements. The issue at hand is whether to require the government to adhere to, and implement, the Kotel agreement.

We at Hiddush realize that we need to view the concept of freedom beyond simply delivery from slavery, and as we celebrate Passover this year, we are ever motivated to bring Israel more fully into a state of religious freedom and equality.

Batya Kahana Dror, Esq. writes, "Getting married via the Rabbinate is not fitting for all couples. Sometimes this clashes with their worldviews, and sometimes it creates bureaucratic difficulties in simply obtaining the Rabbinate's permission to marry at all. Divorcing through the Rabbinate is also more difficult."

Rabbi Meir Azari writes, "The recent years have seen a blossoming of Reform communities, Conservative, secular and the like, situated between what an Israeli would refer to as Orthodox and secular. Many are seeking a Jewish voice for good and equality."

Tehila Friedman-Nachalon writes, "The battles that Hiddush sees as battles for "religious freedom," I perceive as battles over the substance and understanding of the 'Jewish' in 'Jewish and democratic.'"

Professor Pinchas Shiffman writes, "The problem facing stringent religious Judaism is whether to accept a person who lives among us and truly wants to be a Jew, but does intend to be religious. This person's rejection reinforces the split between Jews according to religion and Jews according to nationality."

Smadar Dekel Naim, Esq. writes, "There is no reason whatsoever to be party to this religious coercion, especially at this most precious, family-oriented moment, and in the most personal of matters. Why should we hold non-egalitarian ceremonies, with rabbis who don't identify with our ways of life? Many of whom actually despise us?"

Shira Ben Sasson-Furstenberg writes, "I don't want to be a Torah observant woman that is a guest in Israel's Jewish arena because she is not a man. It is expected that she will not participate, that she will remain behind the mehitza, at the back of the bus."